History of Hotel & Restaurant Marktzicht

Over the years unexpected things can happen. It was probably towards the end of the 18th century when my grandmother’s Beer House in the Losser hamlet of De Zoeke burnt down. My grandmother married Grads Huttenhuis, a wagon and coach builder who had learned his trade in Germany. The license for the Beer House was sold to Mr Knippers from Denekamp, some 17 kilometres from here.

He set up his business on the spot where we now have our terrace. In the current location of the hotel there was a bakery. In early morning, when his bread had been baked and the oven was still warm, the baker put round stones in the oven. Later in the day those stones were collected by churchgoers, who wrapped a towel around them and used them to warm their feet in the cold church in winter. At the end of the church service, the stones were returned and people enjoyed a drink.

As the village grew, there was a growing demand for a new, larger church, and the church’s nave was broken down. The tower, built in the 13th century, remained. The stones of the church were used to pave the roads.

From Beer House to barThe old baker initially did not have a license for serving beer and Dutch gin, but it was granted to him in 1904. The license was later passed on to Bernard Holtkamp, nicknamed “the small baker”, and his wife Fenna. They set up a proper bar.

How the old beer license came into the family againAfter 1964 the bar had several tenants: Ank and Dirk Zijlstra, Hans and Mariët Mensink, and Herman and Ria Alink. We started renting Hotel Marktzicht in 1981. One of the previous tenants had opened a restaurant in Marktzicht next to the bar, and we added a hotel. These days we are no longer renting Hotel, Bar & Restaurant Marktzicht, as we have become its proud owners. This is how the old beer license has come back into our family.